The Focus Fusion Society Forums Story, Art, Song, Self Expression Sci fi vs. Fusion Legitimacy Reply To: A new way of generating electricity

#6820
Ivy Matt
Participant

Stephen Hawking once appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’m not sure how that affected the legitimacy of his views on cosmology.

As for nuclear fusion, I’d say its use or non-use in science fiction, or its attraction to science fiction fans, has little to no bearing on its current legitimacy. Far more important are the claims of the scientists actually doing the research and, of course, how the results stack up against those claims. In the case of fusion, I suspect most knowledgeable people will want not just results, but widespread replication of results. Followed by demonstration reactors. Until then, controlled nuclear fusion as a useful energy source is science fiction.

vansig wrote: please, someone, at least tell me what are the next hard problems to solve, this month, for Focus Fusion?

Or, maybe, what hard problems they solved last month? We could extrapolate from there…

What’s left, anyway?

Increase voltage to 45 kV.
Increase pressure to about 40 torr.
Achieve a peak current of 2 MA.
Replace electrodes with shorter ones.
Introduce heavier gases: D + He (+ N).
Introduce p + B11.
Achieve fusion with p + B11.
Demonstrate net energy with p + B11.

Am I missing anything? Supposedly the first two or three steps were completed last month, leaving the heavier gases as the main unknown.